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harry potter - Why not keep the key in Dumbledore's office?


In The Philosopher's Stone, why was the flying key not kept in Dumbledore's office safely far away from the door? Who were they trying to make the stone accessible to that wouldn't be able to simply ask Dumbledore for the key?



Answer



No direct canon answer, but a strong suspicion is that he was setting it up that Harry could try his strength and grow.




'D'you think he meant you to do it?' said Ron. 'Sending you your father's Cloak and everything?'


'Well,' Hermione exploded, 'if he did – I mean to say – that's terrible – you could have been killed.'


'No, it isn't,' said Harry thoughtfully. 'He's a funny man, Dumbledore. I think he sort of wanted to give me a chance. I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here, you know. I reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help. I don't think it was an accident he let me find out how the Mirror worked. It's almost like he thought I had the right to face Voldemort if I could...'
(Philosopher's Stone, CHAPTER SEVENTEEN, The Man with Two Faces)



This is somewhat confirmed by his reaction when he met Ron and Hermione (which is what prompted Harry's reply above):



'Well, I got back all right,' said Hermione. 'I brought Ron round – that took a while – and we were dashing up to the owlery to contact Dumbledore when we met him in the Entrance Hall. He already knew – he just said, 'Harry's gone after him, hasn't he?' and hurtled off to the third floor.'




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